These Restaurant Chains Serve The Best Pasta

Some Italian food lovers might argue that no restaurant could dare compete with a homemade family recipe. While there's nothing quite like cooking up the nostalgia of Nonna's famous dishes, there are actually some chains that make a mean bowl of pasta. Whether it's pasta mixed with savory and slow-simmered marinara, creamy vodka sauces, or buttery seafood, there are several national restaurant chains with reputations for serving standout noodle entrées that keep customers coming back for more.

You can find delicious pasta served in hearty portions from old-school, family-style restaurant franchises, along with some inventive recipes from fast-casual noodle chains. We researched online forums, customer reviews and ratings, and social media comments from real customers to put together this list of some of the best chains for pasta, all of which receive positive reviews across multiple platforms. With a combination of traditional Italian-American staples — like a classic bowl of spaghetti and meatballs — and modernized takes that put more of an American spin on the classics, these restaurants offer a variety of dishes to satisfy your carb craving. If you enjoy generous portions, bold flavors, and meals that taste freshly made instead of mass-produced, check out one of these chain restaurants that make pasta worth dining out for. 

Maggiano's Little Italy opened the doors to its first restaurant in 1991 with a menu full of Italian-American classics. Since then, the restaurant has spread to more than 50 locations, and its offerings have grown to encompass more iconic Italian dishes with a modern American spin. It often ranks highly on the list of popular Italian chain restaurants in America. The backdrop of music from the old country behind warm, hearty helpings of classic red-sauce food that would make Nonna proud has made Maggiano's a well-respected chain among pasta lovers.

With Anthony Amoroso, a Michelin-star chef, as vice president of kitchen innovation, the pasta dishes at Maggiano's Little Italy receive high praise from customers. One of its most popular menu items is the Rigatoni D, which has inspired fans on TikTok to create copycat recipes at home. Other standout menu items are the chicken and spinach manicotti and the melt-in-your-mouth Wagyu meatballs. Whether you're going for the classic spaghetti and meatballs or something more decadent, Maggiano's delivers with flavor, ambiance, and certainly enough leftovers to take home and enjoy later.

Noodles & Company offers an extensive menu of diverse pasta dishes for those who are in a hurry and on a budget. The chain has revamped its previous menu to improve the quality and taste of existing favorites and add more options to ensure there is something for everyone. One of the most popular dishes on the menu is the mac and cheese, and some customers have even shared hacks on how to get the perfect order of cheesy goodness. One customer shared on Reddit: "Order it with extra cheese sauce and extra cheese on top, get it with penne noodles (this is important), and the parm chicken."

The dish was so popular that the chain introduced a whole mac and cheese menu that includes varieties of the fan favorite, such as Pulled Pork BBQ, Buffalo Chicken Ranch, and Garlic Bacon. Other popular pasta dishes include the Chipotle Chicken Cavatappi with Creamy Chipotle Alfredo Sauce and Japanese Pan Noodles. Most dishes at Noodles & Company are easily customizable, too. It's not always easy to find good, affordable pasta meals, but Noodles & Company offers an entrée with your choice of protein and a side starting at less than $10.

North Italia prides itself on providing real Italian hospitality and the ideal setting for enjoying a meal on a special occasion or night out. This environment, in combination with a constantly growing menu of Italian-American classics, has made it a popular choice for rustic, old-school dining. Customers divulge in online reviews on Yelp that its pasta dishes are hearty and tasty.

Another satisfied customer on Facebook explained that they were initially hesitant to try out North Italia because it's a chain. However, they were extremely impressed by the food and experience: "It didn't feel like a chain. Everything was freshly made. The pasta is made there..." Some standouts are the Chicken Pesto, Buttery Shrimp Scampi, and Spicy Vodka Pasta. The restaurant does an excellent job of curating an Italian dining experience that doesn't feel like a chain restaurant, but more like an authentic red sauce eatery.

Carmine's Italian Restaurant has been operating for 35 years as "The Original NYC Family Style Restaurant." Its family-style offerings bring the flavors of Southern Italy to your plate in large portions, aiming to create an experience reminiscent of a Sunday afternoon at Grandma's. Each plate is large enough to feed at least two people, and some pasta dishes — like the Lobster Fra Diavolo served with linguine — are enough to feed upwards of eight!

Outside of Carmine's iconic signature meatballs (the restaurant makes the bold claim that they're some of the best ever made), there are several pasta dishes that customers can't get enough of. One customer on Yelp raved about the traditional Italian food, claiming the portions are so massive that there's no way to finish a meal by yourself. The restaurant focuses on homey classics, like its Ravioli Marinara, which requires only four ingredients and four steps to make. The ravioli's rustic simplicity establishes it as an Italian dish you should order at least once.

Fazoli's is a fast-casual Italian-American chain that originated in Kentucky. While you may not think of Kentucky as being home to authentic Italian-American offerings, Fazoli's tends to receive praise from customers online for being an affordable and tasty casual spot. After a few years of struggle in the early 2000s, this Italian chain is on its way back with restaurant and menu expansions. Customers appreciate the chain's spaghetti and meatballs, which are the perfect satisfying fix for a pasta craving when you're short on time or money. Despite Fazioli's fast and ultra-casual status, the meatballs are still as tender as those from a time-honored red sauce joint.

If you can't quite settle on one pasta dish or want to try a few out, Fazoli's offers sampler plates that come with three to four pasta options along with breadsticks. These include some customer favorites like the spaghetti and meatballs, fettuccini alfredo, and lasagna with meat sauce. Additionally, customers on the r/TexasTech subreddit claim the delicious garlic breadsticks are reason enough to visit the restaurant.

While Yard House may be most well known for its burgers, poke nachos, and impressive chain restaurant happy hour deals, the company also has some impressive pasta offerings. The Fontina Vodka Pasta is surprisingly creamy and delicious for a restaurant that doesn't specialize in pasta. On Facebook, Daron the Chef gives it a 200 out of 10 rating when ordered with crispy chicken. The Lobster Garlic Noodles is another popular entrée. This plate comes with lobster, shrimp, crab, shiitake mushrooms, spinach, and parmesan, all mixed with soft, garlicky noodles. This fusion dish has become one of the more popular menu items despite the price tag being a little more expensive than the average meal at Yard House.

Instead of offering just the classics, Yard House puts a modern American spin on some of its pasta dishes. It has a Spicy Jambalaya Pasta that keeps bringing customers back and inspiring fans to make homemade versions right at home. This tasty dish includes blackened shrimp, andouille sausage, crawfish, chicken, bell peppers, onions, and garlic tossed in a Cajun cream sauce and served over linguine.

The Old Spaghetti Factory conjures feelings of nostalgia and memories of celebratory dinners and family gatherings for many. The chain has been serving customers since 1969 and remains family-owned and operated to this day. It's well known for the unique trolley car dining area and recipes that are based on old-school family cooking traditions. Its most popular dish remains Spaghetti with Mizithra Cheese and Browned Butter, which is an old family recipe.

In fact, the mizithra cheese at Old Spaghetti Factory is so popular that it's available online or from the restaurant, so fans of the cheese can take it home and use it in their own dishes. One user on the Food Finder Spokane Facebook group stated, "Best mizithra by far. The sauce is never broken." Customers have stated  that the meatballs have an excellent texture that's hearty enough to require a fork and knife but still plenty tender. Customers appreciate that the food is consistent, and many of the dishes taste exactly how they remember, thanks to the chain's commitment to family recipes and tradition.

The Cheesecake Factory's menu has changed a lot over the years, but it's still known for its incredible diversity, with everything from avocado eggrolls, bang-bang chicken and shrimp, and almost every flavor of cheesecake imaginable. But the menu also boasts an impressive number of tasty pasta dishes in enormous portions that come dressed in flavorful sauces. One of the more popular pasta entrées is the Four Cheese Pasta, which is a penne dish with mozzarella, ricotta, Romano, and parmesan cheese with marinara sauce, topped with fresh basil. For a less-than-traditional (but still delicious) take on an Italian classic, try The Cheesecake Factory's cacio e pepe.

Other popular Cheesecake Factory dishes include the Fried Mac and Cheese and the Louisiana Chicken Pasta. Another penne pasta entrée that took over the internet is the Pasta Da Vinci. The meal includes sauteed chicken, mushrooms, and onions tossed in a Madeira wine sauce; a tasty option from The Cheesecake Factory's serious selection of sauces. The dish became such a fan favorite that customers started sharing copycat recipes online in an attempt to recreate the creamy, flavorful version served at the restaurant.

Bonefish Grill is a Southern-style seafood restaurant that serves over 150 locations across the United States. Despite not having a dedicated section for pasta on its menu, the restaurant offers several tasty seafood pasta meals. One of the most popular pasta entrées is the Scallops and Shrimp Scampi Pasta that comes dressed in a white wine, garlic, and lemon sauce. Other tasty dishes include the Creamy Tomato Shrimp Linguine and Lobster Ravioli.

The Bacon Mac and Cheese is another pasta option at Bonefish Grill that receives praise from customers online. This side dish is creamy, cheesy, and comes topped with crispy bread crumbs and bacon bits that add crunch. It has a nice cheese pull when served, which is the litmus test for any good mac and cheese. Here's a pro tip for your next Bonefish Grill outing: The restaurant is celebrated for its Bang-Bang Shrimp appetizer that comes with perfectly seasoned and saucy shrimp coated in a zesty, spicy sauce, so it's well worth ordering as an appetizer before digging into pasta.

To find the chains that serve the very best pasta, we gathered insights from customer reviews via ratings and comments. After reviewing the insights from a broad range of customers, we were able to discern the general reputation that each restaurant has, and which pasta dishes are standouts at each chain. We only included restaurants in this article that serve pastas with a consensus of overwhelmingly positive reviews across multiple platforms, including Yelp, Tripadvisor, and Reddit.

Additionally, we took into account non-Italian chain restaurants that serve excellent pasta and only included chains that have more than three locations. We highlighted the specific pasta dishes that receive the most praise from a broad collection of customers. We also excluded any personal bias in restaurant or dish preference from this article to give readers the most accurate, objective information possible.